Internet services are becoming ubiquitous and customers are receiving voice and data services on Internet based infrastructures such as a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or Service over Internet Protocol (SoIP) network. The VoIP or SoIP network may experience impairments that will affect one or more customers. When an impairment is detected and/or reported, the network service provider troubleshoots the impairment and performs the necessary remedies. Generally, the problem detection, the troubleshooting, reporting, and analysis are performed by work center personnel. For example, a work center personnel may poll each device involved in handling a call for a customer, e.g., the endpoint devices, border routers, etc., and gather call detail records. The records can be analyzed to determine the cause of the impairment. In a large network, detecting and resolving network impairments often require a very significant amount of resources (e.g., in terms of cost and time). Furthermore, a customer may have a degraded service or no service at all while the network service provider is performing tasks for a lengthy process of gathering information and analysis. The lengthy process could quickly lead to customer dissatisfaction.
Therefore, there is a need for a method that enables the network service provider to detect an impairment in a packet network.